Q&A with Taylor Tracy, author of the upcoming "Murray Out of Water"

Welcome to the interview 🗣️

Hello friends! It’s another rainy weekend in NYC, except this time I don’t have an escape planned into the sunny skies of Western New York. Ah well, I’ll just have to comfort myself with this Q&A I got to do with Taylor Tracy! Taylor is an author whose middle grade debut, Murray Out of Water, comes out next summer. I’m so thrilled to have this Q&A with her today, not just because her debut (a novel-in-verse about a girl separated from her Jersey shore ocean water) sounds amazing, but also because I am delighted to continue this series of interviews with pre-pubbed authors!

Read on for more from Taylor!

Karis Rogerson: Can you share how you got interested in writing as a way of storytelling?

Taylor Tracy: I’ve been a lifelong reader and have always cherished the magic of stories—I remember my favorite books my mom read to me as a small child like Are You My Mother?, Froggy Gets Dressed, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and then the first books I fully claimed as my own like Mary Pope Osbourne’s Magic Tree House Series and Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books. Beginning in first grade, I started writing little stories for fun because I could.

My favorite person then was my grandpa, who was one of the funniest and best storytellers I knew. When he was sick and I was in fifth grade, we had to write narrative nonfiction essays for an in-class assignment. I wrote about a boogieboarding mishap I had down the shore and it was the first time I ever truly worked on my craft at telling a story. My family read it in the hospital, and I saw how it lifted their spirits momentarily to read a little story about a kid who wiped out in a wave. While a small thing in the moment, that response helped cement my interest in the impact a story could have on people, bringing them a bit of light even in a dark, heavy time.

KR: Why do you write?

TT: Part of it is that when I don’t write, I’m a mess. I become cranky and emotionally volatile because in part, writing regularly helps me process and channel emotions in a healthy way. Plus, it feels good to write a good story and type “the end” at the end of a manuscript. That’s a feeling I chase with each of my projects.

But beyond what writing does for me personally, I tell stories with the hopes of reaching and helping kids in the same way that books did for me when I was their age. I want to write the stories that would have made me feel seen and accepted as a young queer person. Books saved my life as a kid in more ways than one. I hope my books can be there in the same way for my readers.

KR: Can you share a bit about your journey querying?

TT: I’ve been in the querying trenches three times. The first time I queried, with a YA project when I was in college, I was so green and so unprepared for the emotional toll it takes, and the process has only gotten harder and more competitive.

However, I took the feedback I got from agents and tried to work on my plotting. I queried again in late-2019 and early-2020 after being mentored by Adrienne Kisner in Author Mentor Match and momentarily gave up before sending out a few more and signing with my first agent, Jordan Hamessley at New Leaf in February 2020.

After New Leaf let her go in May of this year, I took a chance to reflect on where I was at in my writing career and decided to re-enter the trenches. I signed with Maria Vicente at P.S. Literary shortly after. Querying with an existing book deal, but without a novel released and without another completed but uncontracted project was a nerve-wracking process and very different from “traditional” querying.

Overall, querying is a huge challenge no matter when you decide to do it, how much help you seek to prepare, or what stage you’re at in your career. It’s putting yourself out there as a writer and opening yourself up to lots of opportunity for rejection that can feel very, very personal. It’s so important to make sure you have an adequate support network and know you can step back if you need to. Above all, do your research and be professional, but also remember that as a writer, you are a small business pitching yourself and your work. Rejection can feel very personal, but you deserve someone with the bandwidth and enthusiasm to help your business succeed.

KR: Once you got an agent, how did it look to go forth and go on sub?

TT: Oh goodness, I’ve been on sub four times now for projects that range from a stationary/self-help hybrid project that was very much a toss-up during the pandemic and didn’t sell to the middle grade novel in verse we sold to Quill Tree Books.

If you think the anxiety you experience during querying is going to go away when you get an agent, I’m sorry. Especially if you’re prone to anxious agonizing like me, prepare to double it and get it back. Going on submission with a project is so charged with cautious hope and crushingly grounded reality. The market is so competitive, so saturated and it’s easy to second-guess yourself: what if we did one more round of edits? What if I focused a little more on this or that? What if my pitch was just a little bit better? What if we missed a comp that would have helped really sell it?

But as long as I know I put out the best book I could in that moment and be open to feedback, it’s manageable.

KR: What milestones do you like to celebrate, and how do you celebrate them?

TT: I’m admittedly not the biggest celebrator, mostly because I work four jobs in addition to writing and am so busy that I often miss my own milestones. However, after selling my debut Murray Out of Water I made a donation to “adopt” a cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtle named Butterscotch from the local non-profit Sea Turtle Recovery (who was recently fully rehabilitated and released back into the wild) and commissioned art of my main character from my favorite illustrator, Tillie Walden.

KR: If you had to describe your writing “brand” in one sentence, how would you do so?

TT: I write empathy-driven books for kids and teens that are filled with humor and heart to celebrate queer joy and community.

KR: Can you pitch your upcoming middle grade debut in a few sentences?

TT: Murray Out of Water is a middle grade novel in verse about a twelve-year-old kid who loses her ocean magic when a hurricane destroys her family’s house on the Jersey Shore. Murray’s magic was helping her cope with the departure of her beloved older brother from the family after an incident with their very conservative parents. Forced to stay with somewhat-estranged extended family in upstate New York while they repair the storm damage, Murray becomes friends with a boy at her new school, Dylan, who has magic of his own. Hanging out with Dylan and the queer found family at Dylan’s uncle’s local roller rink helps Murray discover the joy of a found family while she desperately tries to get her magic back.

KR: What is your favorite thing about said debut?

TT: Since I was literally Murray’s age, I have loved novels in verse, but never never thought I was ever capable of writing one, let alone having it be my debut. I’m so proud that I let myself experiment with verse novel-writing and opened myself up to writing a weird book about queer joy, community, and the strange beauty of the ocean and its creatures. My favorite thing about Murray Out of Water is that it’s the most “me” book I could have written and I’m proud of doing something I truly felt was impossible by taking a chance and trusting in myself.

KR: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

TT: Don’t lose the joy of being a storyteller because you’re chasing arbitrary markers of success. There will always be something more you can achieve, and extrinsic motivation is a slippery slope of feeling like nothing you do is never enough.

Harness, protect, and nurture your intrinsic motivation and love of writing while also taking care of yourself. If that means writing fanfiction and only ever writing fanfiction, go for it. If that means writing every day at the same time or only when you get pockets of time in your busy schedule, do what works best for your life. Don’t be afraid to play and experiment. With new forms, new characters, new ideas. Be kind and stay weird.

KR: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

TT: Banned Books Week ended yesterday, but that does not mean that the need to fight against censorship in our schools and libraries is over. There is a small but organized group of people in this country who want to limit our access and celebration of marginalized voices–particularly people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. My debut may be challenged and banned because it features gender nonconforming, gender-questioning, and nonbinary kids and teens…and includes a teen drag show.

Readers, I hope you will research how you can support organizations that support trans kids, support authors of color and queer authors whose books are affected by these bans, and vote for school board candidates who are outspoken against censorship and book banning next month and info the future.

Alla prossima 👋

That’s all, folks! I’m so excited for the summer 2024 release of Murray Out of Water, and I hope this Q&A gave some insight into what it’s like to be a contracted, pre-pub debut author! You can keep up with Taylor by subscribing to her Substack, , and I hope you’ll keep this debut middle grade on your radar!

As for me, I’ll be back next week with some heart reflections and thoughts from the page!